Annie's Virtual Pre-Grouping, Grouping and BR Layouts & Workbench

[Annie]

This is a Steve Flanders GWR coach and the reason why I won't be making any pre-group GWR coaches anymore.  It's a D3 brake 3rd built circa 1887 and it's seriously lovely.  At the other end of the train I have a E19 brake tricomposite of similar appearance that was built around the same time.

 

 

 

From right front: D3 Brake 3rd,  E27 Composite, E19 Composite, E27 Composite, C4 3rd, C4 3rd, E19 Brake Tricomposite, K4 Brake.  I have no interest at all in the post-grouping GWR (Collett steel siders ick!), though I do understand there are tainted heretics about who preach this false doctrine and they must be pitied by the faithful, though kept at arm's length to avoid their foul disease from taking root.

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

I've copied this post over from the Auran forums because I thought it might be of interest.

'Cairnrigg to Balessie, Pre-grouping Scotland' is a layout of mine I now have on the DLS in TS2012 and TS2019 versions.  It started life as a test track and gradually and to my complete surprise eventually became a proper layout.

 

'Cairnrigg to Balessie' was my test track and earlier today it was being used for just that. I've been wanting to sort out my old TS2004 era 1860's engines for 'expert' mode driving for a while now. Along the way I discovered that some engine specs on the DLS can only be considered to be DCC only and are hopeless when trying to use the 'realistic' steam controls. Others were just too darn good and made my elderly engines better than they ever would have been in real life.
In the end it was engine specs by Paul Hobbs and Anthony Grantham (2995valliant) that proved to be the only serious contenders and even then it took a bit of experimentation to find the right ones to suit my old engines. 


Ex Edinburgh & Leith Railway 2-4-0WT (No.3). When new this particular engine was used on fast passenger trains, but in old age it was fitted with double buffers for a second life hauling chauldron wagons; - a job for which it wasn't exactly well suited. (I have a range of buffer types I can plug into this particular engine's base body mesh). No chauldron wagons on 'Cairnrigg to Balessie' so it gets used for short trip working instead.
In the end it was Anthony's LMS 2p engine spec that made the cut (and not all the 2p engine specs available are the same by any means). This engine spec combined with No.3's large diameter driving wheels and other base specs makes it a bit tricky to get under way with any kind of load coupled up to it. Fine handling of the regulator and reverser are needed which makes it a very rewarding engine to drive. It's also a sulky steamer so again careful work is need to get the best out of her. It took a bit of work and quite a bit of testing to end up with this result, but it's made old No.3 a really fun and very individual engine to drive. No more DCC for you old girl!





ex Edinburgh Railway 0-6-0ST (No.04. The number '04' means it's on a duplicate list). This old engine is a complete brute; - or it is now. After a few wrong turns I tried Paul Hobb's 3F engine spec and old No.04 was delight, - it ran perfectly, - just like an LMS 3F! Not what I wanted at all.
So I tried Paul Hobb's L&Y saddle tank engine spec and oh what a difference. No.04 still steamed well, but now it had a maximum boiler pressure more in keeping with an old engine. The biggest change though I was utterly convinced I was having to deal with operating gab type valve gear http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r132.html . No.04 is a vicious old dog to get to move, but once moving it will pull anything. The technique for driving No.04 is streets away from how No.3 has to be driven and I really like that. This is not the engine to use for shunting goods vans loaded with delicate china which why No.04 is going to be used on mineral and coal trains where its rude muscle is a bonus.
There is also a No.03 of the same type as No.04 and the same comments apply.



So there you go. How I spent time on a really interesting engine testing session. Ed's NBR engines are lovely and I do like them, but 'Cairnrigg to Balessie' was always home to aged engines of the 1850s-1860s era and I want that to continue. With going for the 'expert' realistic controls over DCC I've just taken things up to the next level 

Edit: And with old engines like these it's locomotive brakes in use only if you want the full experience. No such thing as continuous train braking systems back then.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

After the very warm reception and nice comments I received about 'Cairnrigg to Balessie' I'm presently working on a coastal tramway route for eventual upload to the DLS.  Trainz folk over on the Auran form have asked me if I'm going to upload the Hopewood Tramway to the DLS, but that's not really possible since it's a very much a permanent part of my much larger and still WIP layout Valleyfields.

So the theme of a GER aligned/absorbed/associated tramway is being revisited, but it won't be a carbon copy of the Hopewood Tramway.  The new layout/route is named the 'Windweather Tramway' and I'm working to give it a much more remote feel to its location and the landscape is going to be very much flat rather than hilly.

 

Some snaps.  Everything is still WIP so some of the scenes are likely to change over time.

 

The terminus at Windweather. The carrstone station building is based off the station buildings at Brandon on the old Norwich & Brandon Railway, which became a part the Eastern Counties Railway and was ultimately amalgamated into the GER.  The lovely gentleman who made the model some years ago is in the creator group I belong to and he filled me in on a lot of the details about the station and how he came to make models based on it for Trainz.



The small station/Halt by the beach. I decided to name it 'Winkle Bay Halt'.  I'm not sure about the LSWR platform shelter though.  It might get replaced if I can find something better.





Retired fisherman's shack on the beach.  Just a little cameo that was fun to put together.

 

[Martin S-C]

 

Retired fisherman's shack on the beach.  Just a little cameo that was fun to put together.

I thought at once of Fulton Mackay in "Local Hero"

 

[Edwardian]

 

After the very warm reception and nice comments I received about 'Cairnrigg to Balessie' I'm presently working on a coastal tramway route for eventual upload to the DLS.  Trainz folk over on the Auran form have asked me if I'm going to upload the Hopewood Tramway to the DLS, but that's not really possible since it's a very much a permanent part of my much larger and still WIP layout Valleyfields.

So the theme of a GER aligned/absorbed/associated tramway is being revisited, but it won't be a carbon copy of the Hopewood Tramway.  The new layout/route is named the 'Windweather Tramway' and I'm working to give it a much more remote feel to its location and the landscape is going to be very much flat rather than hilly.

 

Some snaps.  Everything is still WIP so some of the scenes are likely to change over time.

 

The terminus at Windweather. The carrstone station building is based off the station buildings at Brandon on the old Norwich & Brandon Railway, which became a part the Eastern Counties Railway and was ultimately amalgamated into the GER.  The lovely gentleman who made the model some years ago is in the creator group I belong to and he filled me in on a lot of the details about the station and how he came to make models based on it for Trainz.

 

 

The small station/Halt by the beach. I decided to name it 'Winkle Bay Halt'.  I'm not sure about the LSWR platform shelter though.  It might get replaced if I can find something better.

 

 

 

Retired fisherman's shack on the beach.  Just a little cameo that was fun to put together.

 

 

 

 

Lovely. Suitably bleak. Surely that's Peter Grimes?

 

Puts me in mind of the West Norfolk's Wolfringham branch.

[Annie]

Thanks James.  That was exactly the kind of mood I was aiming for.  Bleak and windswept.

 

I have since done something quite radical and intrepid with my little tramways.  Realising that I actually only run train services on about a third of Valleyfields, - essentially the part where the Hopewood Tramway is, - I decided to remove that part from Valleyfields and set it up as its own layout.  The advantages would be considerable because in doing that I would no longer have the unfinished parts of the layout mocking me and I would also be in possession of the only part of the larger layout that I actually like.

 

There is a tool for entirely removing a layout board and casting it down into the void.  When this is activated the doomed section will drop complete with landscape and buildings like a scene from a horror movie spiraling down into oblivion.  Clicking on the fell button that will visit such a horror will bring up a message box full of dire warnings about irretrievable loss and the option to proceed or cancel.  I did archive away a copy of Valleyfields before I began, but all the same I did hesitate just a little before proceeding.  

Because you see you don't so much lift away intact the part you want as annihilate everything you don't want.   

 

Everything has survived just fine fortunately, - and while there is work to be done at the cut off edges where continuous spline objects such as track and hedges didn't take kindly to being chopped through the middle it's all quite readily repairable.  The cut off ends of the GCR double track mainline and the GER single track secondary line will be fitted with portals which makes them much more useful because trains can now actually go somewhere and return later loaded or unloaded depending on how I setup the magical scripting incantations that control the portals.  Think of it as being the ultimate off stage fiddle yard, but without having to find somewhere to put it.

 

The other fairly intrepid thing I've done is add the Windweather Tramway boards to the Hopewood Tramway ones.  To do this I also added three blank layout boards which will be landscaped and one additional board so I could extend the sea and thereby link together the two layout's coastlines.

 

This snap was taken at a fairly raw stage with the coastlines only just having been jointed up and water added to the new sea layout board.  The fact that the Hopewood Tramway had the sea at low tide on its coastline and the Windweather Tramway had the sea at high tide on its coastline made things a little interesting, but we got there in the end.

The Windweather Tramway boards are the ones in the far background by the way.

 

The transition from the hill bounded landscape the Hopewood Tramway calls home out to the flat windswept landscape the Windweather Tramway occupies looks as if it is going to work out much better than I expected. 

The Windweather Tramway's claim to fame is that it serves one of those kinds of cunningly designed harbours where boats enter on the high tide and a set of lock gates are closed as the tide begins to fall.  Of course I haven't a clue what I'm doing, but that isn't going to stop me from modelling one.  I read about how these harbours worked some time ago and they were very much a Victorian canal age type of thing.  And yes there will be a canal; - most probably on the start of the downward slide to dereliction, but still functioning at the present time.

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by Annie

[Annie]

Lydney harbour, - that was it.  Martin would like that since it was associated with the Forest of Dean.

 

EDIT:  An amazing number of period photos of Lydney harbour can be found here........  http://www.forestprints.co.uk/lydney_harbour.htm

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by Annie

[Martin S-C]

Ooh, nice. I always relax and feel so at home the moment a photo has a CANNOP wagon in it

 

Mind you, I'm not convinced about the colour of ANY of those wagons in that artist's rendition!

[Annie]

The discovery of all the historic Lydney harbour photos has been a real bonus as Lydney Harbour is exactly the type of tidal lock gated harbour I wanted to represent.  My version will be of course smaller and the railway sidings on a more modest scale than Lydney.  With all the wonderful details shown in the photos it's going to be difficult to decide what to leave out

[Annie]

Progress with the tidal harbour.  Still very WIP with lots yet to do.

 

 

 

[Martin S-C]

Bloomin heck! That's fantastic. You did all this today? Amazing. I can see the Lydney Docks/Lydney Town influence.

[Annie]

Actually I started on parts of the harbour yesterday Martin, but today it was all about the harbour walls and lock gates as well as getting the water levels done properly.  Oh........ um and some other bits and pieces were done too.

 

Those Lydney docks pictures were absolutely what I needed in order to do this.  Otherwise I would have been fluffing about and getting nowhere.  From here onwards it will be doing all the detailing and finding the right buildings to complete the harbour.

[Annie]

It was the two swing bridges and where they had to be sited that dictated the eventual width and length of the tidal harbour at Windweather.  I must've tried 6 different bridge models before I settled on the one pictured in the snaps.  To my mind it's the best model out of the 6 in terms of general appearance too; - though my main criteria was that the bridge would need to fit the two different sites but without the one in the high water basin being partly submerged.  With the harbour being in what is very much a flat landscape I didn't want to get into having to raise embankments or other messing about and that alone knocked three of the bridges out of the running.

 

BUT we got there in the end and that's the main thing.

 

As to traffic and how this part of my tramway empire pays the bills it's the harbour that's the main event.  There is another sand loader siding on this tramway section, - which makes sense really since there is so much of the stuff, - but apart from that it's the usual agricultural traffic.  The Windweather Tramway section doesn't have industries to serve in the way the Hopewood Tramway does and when I started to build the Windweather Tramway I very much wanted to make it a very different and individual line and not a carbon copy of the Hopewood Tramway.  For a start the flat landscape marks it apart from Hopewood and the Windweather section is more isolated in that it doesn't have junction connections with any of the mainline railways like the Hopewood Tramway does.  Of course the Windweather Tramway does now have a junction connection to the Hopewood Tramway, but that certainly couldn't be called a mainline connection no matter how much spin anyone might want to put on it.

I'm a bit of signal nut and the Hopewood Tramway is well signalled with a variety of signals both ancient and pre-group era modern.  But with Windweather I decided to go minimalistic with just the odd home signal where absolutely necessary.  Any operational gaps supposedly being filled in by a signalman or signalman/porter's flag and the occasional, 'Oi! - get a move on'.  Unlike Hopewood, Windweather is mostly run on one engine in steam so an overpopulation of signals isn't necessary.

 

Speaking of 'one engine in steam' this is it.  One of the members of the creator group I belong to has a friend who makes Trainz models for Thomas the Tank Engine layouts.  For some reason or another he made this small 2-4-2T that isn't really based on any prototype, but is reasonably appealing despite that.  I was able to get one and it arrived in NER green, but I decided that GER blue would be better.  An hour's careful reskinning and this is the result.  It's a very nice wee engine and runs sweetly.  It has an engine spec intended for an Avonside 0-4-0 so absolutely flat out it can't go past 25 mph which is the speed limit on the tramways anyway; -though its very controllable low speed will be a major bonus when it comes to shunting the Windweather wharf.

 

 

 

And just to make it a little more plausible it's numbered for the duplicate list and the numberplate has 'Rebuilt Stratford Works 1904' on it to make it seem like an engine the GER inherited rather than built itself.  I'm pleased with how the numberplate turned out.  I could have fluffed about with it longer, but there are limits and I'm the only one who is going to see it anyway.

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by Annie

[Annie]

New engine on test.

 

[Edwardian]

It was the two swing bridges and where they had to be sited that dictated the eventual width and length of the tidal harbour at Windweather.  I must've tried 6 different bridge models before I settled on the one pictured in the snaps.  To my mind it's the best model out of the 6 in terms of general appearance too; - though my main criteria was that the bridge would need to fit the two different sites but without the one in the high water basin being partly submerged.  With the harbour being in what is very much a flat landscape I didn't want to get into having to raise embankments or other messing about and that alone knocked three of the bridges out of the running.

 

BUT we got there in the end and that's the main thing.

 

As to traffic and how this part of my tramway empire pays the bills it's the harbour that's the main event.  There is another sand loader siding on this tramway section, - which makes sense really since there is so much of the stuff, - but apart from that it's the usual agricultural traffic.  The Windweather Tramway section doesn't have industries to serve in the way the Hopewood Tramway does and when I started to build the Windweather Tramway I very much wanted to make it a very different and individual line and not a carbon copy of the Hopewood Tramway.  For a start the flat landscape marks it apart from Hopewood and the Windweather section is more isolated in that it doesn't have junction connections with any of the mainline railways like the Hopewood Tramway does.  Of course the Windweather Tramway does now have a junction connection to the Hopewood Tramway, but that certainly couldn't be called a mainline connection no matter how much spin anyone might want to put on it.

I'm a bit of signal nut and the Hopewood Tramway is well signalled with a variety of signals both ancient and pre-group era modern.  But with Windweather I decided to go minimalistic with just the odd home signal where absolutely necessary.  Any operational gaps supposedly being filled in by a signalman or signalman/porter's flag and the occasional, 'Oi! - get a move on'.  Unlike Hopewood, Windweather is mostly run on one engine in steam so an overpopulation of signals isn't necessary.

 

Speaking of 'one engine in steam' this is it.  One of the members of the creator group I belong to has a friend who makes Trainz models for Thomas the Tank Engine layouts.  For some reason or another he made this small 2-4-2T that isn't really based on any prototype, but is reasonably appealing despite that.  I was able to get one and it arrived in NER green, but I decided that GER blue would be better.  An hour's careful reskinning and this is the result.  It's a very nice wee engine and runs sweetly.  It has an engine spec intended for an Avonside 0-4-0 so absolutely flat out it can't go past 25 mph which is the speed limit on the tramways anyway; -though its very controllable low speed will be a major bonus when it comes to shunting the Windweather wharf.

 

 

 

And just to make it a little more plausible it's numbered for the duplicate list and the numberplate has 'Rebuilt Stratford Works 1904' on it to make it seem like an engine the GER inherited rather than built itself.  I'm pleased with how the numberplate turned out.  I could have fluffed about with it longer, but there are limits and I'm the only one who is going to see it anyway.

 

 

Well, first, Annie, must be a "wow" for the harbour. I don't recall seeing this time of harbour modelled in any form. The sense of spaciousness and the convincing layout clearly shows the advantages of a virtual layout. This is not the first of your scenes that I'd love to model in 4mil.

 

I really like that locomotive.  Commonalities in design-heritage between the NE and GE make a GER version very convincing.  It is not at all difficult to accept that, if such lines as yours existed, the GE might have built one or two locomotives such as this to service them. 

 

Really great content to wake up to. 

[Annie]

Thank you very much James.  I had first heard of Lydney harbour quite sometime ago and somehow it had remained tucked away in a corner of my brain until I came to make a start on the Windweather Tramway.  Josias Jessop, William Jessop's son, was the consulting engineer for the construction of Lydney harbour so with an engineering pedigree like that behind it I really couldn't do better with finding a Victorian age harbour design to try and represent.

 

After building the Hopewood Tramway which is very much hemmed in and squeezed into left over spaces between pre-existing towns and earlier mainline railway construction I wanted to use open space and a sense of uncluttered spaciousness with this new tramway project.  The temptation with open space is wanting to fill it up, so I'm going to have to strongly resist that urge and make sure that the landscape retains its flat and empty windswept look.

 

Yes No.044 is an odd little engine in some ways with its NER influenced details and its almost 'Crystal Palace' cab.  My backstory is that it was inherited from some line that the GER absorbed and then rebuilt at Stratford.  When some utterly ancient engine the Windweather Tramway owned finally expired the GER sent No.044 to them.  I have of course endless numbers of G15 and C53 tram engines to call upon, but I wanted something a little different for the line.

 

I've just been on the phone to my son and he expressed an interest in my latest project so I guided him to this page and the pictures of the tidal harbour. There was a 'Gosh you made all that Mum' moment, - and he was then quite happy to listen to me rattling on about canals and Victorian engineering & etc for about the next half an hour.  All good fun.

[Edwardian]

Thank you very much James.  I had first heard of Lydney harbour quite sometime ago and somehow it had remained tucked away in a corner of my brain until I came to make a start on the Windweather Tramway.  Josias Jessop, William Jessop's son, was the consulting engineer for the construction of Lydney harbour so with an engineering pedigree like that behind it I really couldn't do better with finding a Victorian age harbour design to try and represent.

 

After building the Hopewood Tramway which is very much hemmed in and squeezed into left over spaces between pre-existing towns and earlier mainline railway construction I wanted to use open space and a sense of uncluttered spaciousness with this new tramway project.  The temptation with open space is wanting to fill it up, so I'm going to have to strongly resist that urge and make sure that the landscape retains its flat and empty windswept look.

 

Yes No.044 is an odd little engine in some ways with its NER influenced details and its almost 'Crystal Palace' cab.  My backstory is that it was inherited from some line that the GER absorbed and then rebuilt at Stratford.  When some utterly ancient engine the Windweather Tramway owned finally expired the GER sent No.044 to them.  I have of course endless numbers of G15 and C53 tram engines to call upon, but I wanted something a little different for the line.

 

I've just been on the phone to my son and he expressed an interest in my latest project so I guided him to this page and the pictures of the tidal harbour. There was a 'Gosh you made all that Mum' moment, - and he was then quite happy to listen to me rattling on about canals and Victorian engineering & etc for about the next half an hour.  All good fun.

 

That's a good invented history for the locomotive and setting for the line. 

 

A little 2-4-2T puts me in mind of the Colne Valley, again reinforcing the appropriateness of your choice. In one of the pictures below you see it c.1907 with GE stock.  In the other you can also see the 0-4-2T that inspires WNR No.1.  

 

I can relate to your exchange with your son; my Boy, who is not at all into railways or modelling, wandered into the office last week and the Drill Hall elicited a similar "gosh moment".  Most gratifying. 

[Annie]

I do like those Colne Valley tank engines James, but then I do tend to be a bit keen on tank engines of the 1880-1890's era.  I decided to use the little 2-4-2T because its small coupled wheelbase would make it suitable for some of the tighter curves on the Windweather harbour trackwork, but with it being a 2-4-2T it could carry enough coal and water to make it useful over longer distances.

 

As for the 0-4-2T that will become WNR No.1 that is a very fine engine indeed.  Very much an engine of its era, but unfortunately of a type that was not treated kindly by the grouping.

 

I've given a nod in that direction myself with the Hopewood Tramway's No.4  (which is actually a thinly disguised NSR Class B)

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by Annie

[Edwardian]

I do like those Colne Valley tank engines James, but then I do tend to be a bit keen on tank engines of the 1880-1890's era.  I decided to use the little 2-4-2T because its small coupled wheelbase would make it suitable for some of the tighter curves on the Windweather harbour trackwork, but with it being a 2-4-2T it could carry enough coal and water to make it useful over longer distances.

 

As for the 0-4-2T that will become WNR No.1 that is a very fine engine indeed.  Very much an engine of its era, but unfortunately of a type that was not treated kindly by the grouping.

 

I've given a nod in that direction myself with the Hopewood Tramway's No.4  (which is actually a thinly disguised NSR Class B)

 

 

That I really like.

 

It has a rather lovely North Western Railway/Region look in that livery!

 

I would have assumed it would be a passenger tank, but no screw links or vac pipes?

 

I'm going for the original appearance of CV&HR No.1, essentially a GER T7 with a cab: 

[Martin S-C]

Lovely stuff, and I agree with James that virtual modelling has its advantages in terms of space and a whole different way of construction - and expense! No need to convert garages to habitable state at great cost!

 

I love the first image in post #1063 - the morning commuter rush hour at Winkle Bay.

 

EDIT: That is a stunning little engine James. I look forward to seeing your model very much.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Martin S-C

[Annie]

That I really like.

 

It has a rather lovely North Western Railway/Region look in that livery!

 

I would have assumed it would be a passenger tank, but no screw links or vac pipes?

 

I'm going for the original appearance of CV&HR No.1, essentially a GER T7 with a cab: 

It's a very old Paulz Trainz model and he didn't put screw couplings and vacuum pipes on his models back then James.  It might be possible to change them by editing the config file, - a job for later when I'm feeling more alert.

It certainly is a very sweet running engine though and all things considered I'm reasonably happy with it. 

 

Yes it is a bit NWR like.  Perhaps I should replace the tankside number with a cast brass plate in order to lose  some of the TtTE appearance.

[Annie]

For Martin.  The Winkle Bay morning commuter passenger train.

 

 

And I was able the change the link couplers for screw couplings on No.4 and now that I've got it figured out I'll convert some of the other old Paulz Trainz engines I have that have the wrong kind of couplings.  I've found a basic vacuum brake standpipe and hose mesh I can use, but I'll need to fit them with positional scripting which is a bit of a fiddle to do.  No.4 now also has a proper number plate, - painted on numbers are just sooooooo post-grouping.......

 

 

Checking the shade of blue I used on No.044 against the tiny handful of blue GER engines I have I can see it's just a little too vibrant so I'll tone it back slightly.  Hopewood Tramway blue is a lighter shade than GER blue so there's nothing to change there.

 

When I purchased the NSR class 'B' from Paul I only ordered one and he gave me four.  I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with the other three.  Due to No.4's reduced route availability on the Hopewood Tramway because the Board of Trade finally put its foot down about it's lack of tramway skirts it's very likely that No.4 will be loaned out fairly often to the Windweather Tramway since that line has a lot less miles of roadside trackwork and on some routes none at all (or once I've laid the track it will).

 

I need to research fenland type landscapes too since I want to model that kind of landscape on part of the Windweather Tramway's track mileage.  I have three empty layout boards that I have penciled in to be fenland and as usual I haven't a clue what I'm letting myself in for.

[Edwardian]

Love the little GER train, and No.4 looks good with a number plate. 

 

 

I need to research fenland type landscapes 

 

Basically ... flat . 

[Annie]

Thank you James for the brilliant photos.  The flat bit I understand Ok, - I guess it's determining the types of trees and other vegetation I need as well as properly representing waterways and the plant types to be found on the banks.  I hope my computer won't fold up and die from the amount of reeds I'm going to need to 'plant'.

 

Here in New Zealand I live on the edge of an ancient river flood plain with many streams and waterways so in many ways it does have fen like characteristics with being very flat and quite sparse and empty so some aspects are familiar to me.  As always it's the details that might trip me up should I assume too much about it all being just like what's up the road from home.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Annie

[Annie]

 

 

Love the little GER train, and No.4 looks good with a number plate. 

Unlike the Hopewood Tramway that still uses its own aging plain red painted 4 wheelers the Windweather Tramway uses GER 6 wheel coaches, -  just two in number, - a brake 3rd and a composite coach.  Passenger traffic is purely a local affair so more coaches aren't really needed.  Most of the time just the brake 3rd will do with any local goods traffic needing to be dropped off on the way coupled on behind.

 

Yes I should have fitted No.4 up with a number plate right from the start since it does look much better now.  Much more like a proper Victorian engine.